"In this general-interest book, historian Guy de la Bédoyère takes us into the day-to-day life of a soldier in the imperial Roman army. His compelling narrative draws on archaeological evidence and the words of Roman historians and of the soldiers themselves, especially through their religious dedications, tombstones, private letters, and graffiti. The result is a window on how the men, their wives, concubines, and children lived, whether in bleak...

A sweeping history of the often-violent conflict between Islam and the West, shedding a revealing light on current hostilities The West and Islam--the sword and the scimitar--have clashed since the mid-seventh century, when, according to Muslim tradition, the Byzantine emperor rejected Prophet Muhammad's order to abandon Christianity and convert to Islam, unleashing a centuries-long jihad on Christendom. Sword and Scimitar chronicles the significant...

The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a grueling debacle that has striking lessons for the 21st century. Parallels between the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are impossible to ignore. The Soviet Union sent some of its most elite troops to unfamiliar lands to fight a vaguely defined enemy, which eventually defeated their superior numbers with unconventional tactics. Although the Soviet leadership initially...

A deadly continental struggle, the Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict--a conflict that ultimately transformed the map of the modern world.

In a damning, inspiring, and breathtaking narrative of what is likely to be a turning point for Europe--and the world--Guardian correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Luke Harding reports firsthand on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When, just before dawn on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin launched a series of brutal attacks, Harding was there, on the ground in Kyiv. But this senseless violence was met with astounding resilience--from,...